Friday, January 11, 2008
The Preparedness Czar
As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a "culture of preparedness" to prevent another post-disaster disaster.Amen, Brother.
"There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not," the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. "What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard."
His next project is still taking shape, but he wants to see civil defense classes for young people that would teach first aid and survival basics, such as how to purify water. He wants to lobby drugstores and other businesses to keep generators in case of a long power failure. He wants cities to stockpile food and water so they don't have to rely on the federal government.
And he wants to pressure every family to have an emergency plan, right down to backpacks with food, water, essential documents and medicine.
"In this new normal, with the possibility of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and industrial accidents, we need this culture of preparedness," he said. "A vast part of America still thinks, '`That couldn't happen where I live.' And they are dead damn wrong."
(H/T Survivalblog)
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Jan 11, 12:18:00 PM:
Well, thank goodness.
I told Mindy that he had some mighty big fearmongering footsteps to fill, and told him how TH's co-bloggers have an Internet-wide reputation as being some of the biggest fearmongers on the 'Net, but I'm not sure if he believed me.
He will now.
___________________________________
"to prevent another post-disaster disaster."
WHAT? Note the usual liberal trope that somehow the government "failed" the poor unfortunates after Katrina, whereas, in reality, the "government", in the form of the Coast Guard, the Fish & Wildlife boys and other agencies did a superb job of rescuing people. FEMA, of course, isn't a first responder and had absolutely no business showing up there for at least a week.
But if you ask the good general, I'm willing to bet that he'll claim that if only FEMA had showed up that first day, they could have prevented those hundreds of rapes and murders that took place in the Superdome.
"There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not,"
Moron. Fifty years ago there was kind of a 'national stereotype' that Southern accents denoted a low IQ, but we've had THREE PRESIDENTS from the southern states since then, so I'd say that notion is somewhat dispelled.
"What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard."
Well, sure -- if any other Eastern city was located 10 feet below sea level! The only question at this point is, is this guy a complete moron, or does he think we are?
"but he wants to see civil defense classes for young people that would teach first aid and survival basics, such as how to purify water."
People need to take classes to learn how to boil water? And would these "survival basics" be learning which tree bark and roots are safe to eat?
"He wants to lobby drugstores and other businesses to keep generators in case of a long power failure."
Busineses that should stay open during times of crisis, like radio and TV stations, already have generators. If you're a small drugstore owner and your house is about to be flooded, does the author really think the owner will fire up his generator so he can stay in business while the entire community goes under ten feet of water? Does the author expect the drugstore owner to sacrifice his own belongings so he can continue to sell aspirin to a needy public?
"He wants cities to stockpile food and water so they don't have to rely on the federal government."
Moron.
It has to do with mindset, sir, not "stockpiles".
"And he wants to pressure every family to have an emergency plan, right down to backpacks with food, water, essential documents and medicine."
Jesus. Backpacks? All filled with dried food, propped up by the door awaiting a need that will, no doubt, be required at any moment, just as soon as the nuclear bomb goes off?
Is this like that list that Glenn Reynolds publishes every six months where one of the survival items, as I recall, is "keeping goats and chickens"?
"In this new normal"
This new...normal? We're living in a "normal"? If we don't buy into this guy's poppycock, does that mean we're living in an 'abnormal'?
"with the possibility of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and industrial accidents, we need this culture of preparedness,"
Uh, pardon me, but we've been undergoing terrorist attacks, natural disasters and industrial accidents for, oh, about 200 years now, and I don't ever recall "mass starvation" following any of them. And let's bear in mind that the worst disasters were due to lapses in judgment, not a lack of preparedness. 9/11 was a lapse in judgment (thank you, Bill Clinton), Katrina was a dual lapse in judgment (40-year-old levees protecting a town 10 feet below sea level), and how do you prepare for 100-year floods like parts of the Midwest went through back in the 80's? Do you keep your tidy row of backpacks next to the front door for 99 years so they'll be ready when you need them on the 100th?
St. Peter: Welcome to Heaven! So, how'd you die?
New Arrival: Well, there was this big flood and I was trying to swim for safety, but my backpack got waterlogged and...
"A vast part of America still thinks, '`That couldn't happen where I live.' And they are dead damn wrong."
I'd like to go on record that I don't think we'll have a devastating earthquake here in the Florida Keys. When I lived in California, I wasn't worried about flooding plains. When I lived in New England, I didn't worry about tornadoes. So when he says we don't think disasters will happen to us, he's partially right!
On the other hand, I definitely worry about hurricanes here in the Keys. I definitely worried about earthquakes when in CA, etc, etc. People aren't dismissive, blind and ignorant as the author so desires us to be. Everyone recognizes the potential dangers their area represents.
To those few fools who don't, well, therein lies the irony. Anyone so foolish as to not recognize the inherent dangers of his area is hardly going to be following this guy's preparatory advice, good or bad.
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What I want to know from Villy is why he thinks "we could use a lot more of this". We've only had three major disasters over the past 30 years, and two of them were extremely localized. Only the flooding of the 80's could be construed as "national" at all.
So, with one usually-localized disaster every 10 years, why does the good general, Villy and TigerHawk (by way of endorsement) think that every person in America should gird themselves for an impending doom that most likely will never come? Statistically, you have a LOT better chance of being killed by a drunk driver than by a breaking levee or 100-year flood.
This isn't to be dismissive of general preparedness, of course. If a nuke knocks out NYC, I wouldn't be surprised if the financial network and the local ATM are out of commission for a while, so yes, it would be prudent to stockpile water, food and some cash for an emergency.
Filled backpacks sitting by the front door, however, pushes it to the level of irrational paranoia, and I would suggest that this site's Credibility Meter just dropped 10 points.
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Fri Jan 11, 01:53:00 PM:
DM, its always a pleasure flushing you out. Why does this stuff push your buttons so much?
"Internet-wide reputation?" You flatter me sir! And I didn't realize we were being measured on a Credibility Meter. Remind me to add one of those to my bug-out bag!
"This isn't to be dismissive of general preparedness, of course."
Huh? It seems that's exactly what you're doing, but no worries mate, I don't take it personally. I just find it curious that you react so to these posts.
Why do I post on preparedness stuff from time to time? Let's just say its a hobby of mine that I think more people should take up. I do not foresee any particular disaster or doom, but do have concerns about the fragility of some of our systems, and the general lack of self-sufficiency among Americans.
I don't take a lot of comfort in statistics, by the way. Are you familiar with Pascal's wager? It basically says that it is not only the probability of risk that matters, but the severity of the consequence if that risk is realized. I think everyone should have fire insurance on their homes and most people won't need that either.
Sorry if that offends but thanks for reading, and I always appreciate the comments.
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Jan 11, 02:21:00 PM:
I’m going to go with the General here (sorry DM). I live in a state where we had one localized disaster (Greensburg) and one widespread semi-disaster (Ice storm). As a general rule, I’m quite happy with my state’s preparedness but I have to tell a story. That Tuesday morning I was on the internet, doing emergency server shutdowns as the ice storm marched thru the state. By Tuesday night the power had gone on-out-on-out-on-out and not coming back for a while. The kids had used up the lighter on candles every time the power went out, and blew them when the lights came back on. So in the course of one day I went from 21st century man, to Stone Age Man, unable to even make fire. Fortunately the local grocery store had a generator for their cash register so I could buy a box of matches.
What he proposes is not some green fantasy of the left, it is a bit of rational preparedness that we all should be thinking about. Mother Nature is one tough cookie, and does not run by a schedule.
By amr, at
Fri Jan 11, 04:32:00 PM:
To me the general is pushing for a little more realistic approach to the situation rather than following the nanny-state beliefs that abound now.
We should not forget that as we progress, we become more tied to our technology and move further away from being self sufficient. An example: many have only cell phones. They are excellent instruments but have to be recharged and with no electricity, no recharge. And then the cell station normally runs off of a power feed. When the power goes out, the batteries with about 8 hrs of life (at least they did a few years ago when I installed them) kick in and then die if power isn’t restored. The cells are also interconnected via land lines. If you have a land line and power goes out, the small voltage on the land line is provided by diesel generator backups at the substations. While each have their problems and both normally rely on grid power and varying degrees of overland connections, the home land line will most likely continue to operate long after the cells fail.
With so much now being all electric, how many have generators and actually know how to utilize them; especially in the cities. We have food and other products delivered on an as needed or just in time basis; limited local warehousing. One problem with the overland delivery of supplies to New Orleans was that roads and bridges were destroyed or impassable and the gas stations had no power to pump gas for the convoys. The old hand cranked pumps are long gone.
If a major portion of the country experiences a major disaster with services shutdown and all levels of government overwhelmed, in short order anarchy may supersede the rule of law. It has in the past when we were a much more self-sufficient and disciplined society. We used to declare martial law and shoot looters and the like to maintain order, but that seems to be an outmoded notion. Therefore, in my small rural setting I do have emergency evacuation kits if needed, stores of food, storage for water, water purification supplies, a generator, fuel, weapons and ammo to defend my family from those who believe that the government will help you and if not will have to take what they need from those who were prepared if it hits the fan.
Not nice to think about, but like the general, I think in terms of “what if” and how to survive.
By , at
Fri Jan 11, 07:51:00 PM:
We have become absurdly reliant on electricity. It's how we see, heat our homes, cook our food, run our tools. Take it away for more than a day or two, and many people are lost little puppies in the stone age.
Having some backup supplies is wise.
